Computer system for automatic organization, indexing and viewing of information from multiple sources

ABSTRACT

A computer data processing system including a central processing unit configured with an integrated computer control software system for the management of data objects including dynamic and automatic organization, linking, finding, cross-referencing, viewing and retrieval of multiple objects regardless of nature or source. The system provides an underlying component architecture having an object-oriented database structure and a metadata database structure which stores only one instance of each object while linking the object to multiple collections and domains for grouping into and retrieval from any of the collections. The system employs configurable, extensible attribute/properties of data objects in metadata format, and a user-configurable interface that facilitates information management.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation of application Ser. No. 14/589,900,filed Jan. 5, 2015, which is a Continuation of application Ser. No.13/609,078, filed Sep. 10, 2012, which is a Continuation of applicationSer. No. 13/272,028, filed Oct. 12, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,280,932,issued Oct. 2, 2012, which is a Continuation of application Ser. No.12/856,428 filed Aug. 13, 2010, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,055,692, issued Nov.8, 2011, which is a Continuation of application Ser. No. 11/903,304,filed Jul. 21, 2007, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,840,619, issued Nov. 12, 2010,which is a Divisional of application Ser. No. 10/621,689 filed Jul. 16,2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,275,063, issued Oct. 5, 2007, which is aNonprovisional of and claims priority to Application No. 60/396,439,filed Jul. 16, 2002.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to computer data processing systems that includecentral processing units configured with novel software-basedinformation management systems, including but not limited to: filesystem browsers; personal information management systems; databasestorage, organization, accessing and retrieval systems; digital assetmanagement systems; email client and server operation; integratedsoftware development environments; internet- or intranet-based searchengines; and similar information services and systems.

BACKGROUND

A primary use of computer information systems is the creation,organization, transmission and storage of information of a variety oftypes in the form of content data, including but not limited to wordprocessing documents; spreadsheets; images; drawings; photographs;sounds; music; email; software source code; web pages, both local andremote; application programs; name and address lists; appointments;notes; calendar schedules; task lists; personal finance management data;corporate customer, department, employee, stocking and accounting data;and so on.

Generally, this information data is stored in either individual filesystem entities (files) of proprietary formats stored on a local or LANor WAN network disk drive or accessed via the Internet, such as a wordprocessing document or databases with specialized access software. Forexample, email messages are often stored bundled together in a singlefile, and new messages are retrieved from a remote server via anInternet protocol; access requires a specific email client to managethese messages. Similarly, accessing information in a database requiresspecialized programs that are compatible with the database format ornetwork access protocol to communicate with a server to store orretrieve the information and display it in a useful format.

Although file data strings (the string of digital bits that comprise thecontent data or object) are generally accompanied by a small,rudimentary amount of metadata about the file, i.e., data thatrepresents properties describing the file contents (such as one or moreof: the file's name, the creation date, the last modification date,access privileges, and possibly a comment), there is typically verylittle or no metadata conveying information as to the internal structureor meaning of the file's contents, that is, no metadata about thecontent data. Some files do have internal descriptions of the contents,but this data is often difficult to access, requiring specialapplications to read and not otherwise generally available to the user.Similarly, records in a database lack information that is needed for usein file systems. In general, database records cannot be manipulated inthe same way as files in a file system.

Thus, the differences in the nature and manner in which content data isstored in individual files and in proprietary databases, and the lack ofuseful metadata about the files or the database content data, makes themclosed and partitioned. This closed and partitioned nature of files anddatabases poses numerous, significant organizational, archival andretrieval problems.

File system browsers, due to their bounded (strictly limited) knowledgeof file contents created by various and possibly unknown softwareapplications, are limited to organizing files by the basic metadataproperties provided by the file system itself: by name, various dates,and by directory or folder.

Finally, there is no general software mechanism (program) incontemporary operating systems to link or group information from diverseindependent sources when they are managed by separate applications. Thisproblem with presently available operating systems and applicationprograms was succinctly set forth by Mr. Mundie of Microsoft as follows(referring to Bill Gates):

The scenario is the dream, not something defined in super-gory detail,”says Mundie. “It's what Bill and I focus on more than the business plansor P&Ls. For a project as big as Longhorn, there could have been 100scenarios, but Bill does this thing with his mind where he distills thelist down to a manageable set of factors that we can organize developergroups around.” Gates' scenarios usually take the form of surprisinglysimple questions that customers might have. Here's a sampling from ourinterviews:

-   -   “Why are my document files stored one way, my contacts another        way, and my e-mail and instant-messaging buddy list still        another, and why aren't they related to my calendar or to one        another and easy to search en masse? . . . ”        (Quote from Fortune Magazine, available on the Internet at:        http://www.fortune.com/fortune/ceo/articles/0,15114,371336-3,00.html

In addition, data stored in computer systems does not have, as afundamental aspect, relationship information other than the most trivialof forms. For example, files may be grouped together within folders ordirectories, or they may be labeled with a color, but otherwise there isvery little functionality to allow the grouping or linking of disparatepieces of information within the system.

In particular, when a file or other piece of information is logicallyinvolved in multiple groupings, linking, cross-referencing or relatingthe groupings is cumbersome at best with current systems. For example,where a given file “myCarFinances.doc” logically should be grouped inboth a “Finances” group and an “Autos” group, there are no truly easychoices for accomplishing such multiple grouping. Either a copy of thefile must be made in two separate “Finances” and “Autos” folders, inwhich case the user must be careful to update both files when changesare made; or a shortcut or alias file must be created and placed inthese folders. Both currently available approaches involve tedious,repetitive manual effort to create and manage that becomes exponentiallymore difficult as the number of groupings or cross-references increases.

Because of this, cross-referencing and filing objects in multiplelocations is difficult, error-prone, and time-consuming. If copies aremade for each location, valuable disk space is wasted, and the user isleft with having to manage changes by making new copies whenever theoriginal is modified and remembering every location of every copy. Manycross-references require many copies, further complicating the task. Andeven if the user decides to create alias files instead of making actualcopies, the alias files still take up space, and the management issue isequally complex and time-consuming.

Accordingly, there is a long felt need in the art to provide a trulyopen computer system having data structures, input interfaces, displaysand operational systems that permits the organization of information, asdata objects, in a wide variety of files and databases, which computersystem is independent of the source of the information objects, isdynamic and automatic, permitting faster archiving, retrieval andviewing of the information and providing more meaningful and usefullinks for better organization and indexing of the information. What isneeded is a simple-to-use data structure and operating mechanism to linkinformation together in a dynamic, memory-and-space-efficient manner,without modifying the original information or propagating numerous,storage-space-robbing duplicates, each of which individually must beupdated as new versions arise.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

It is to be understood that references to the following terms in thisapplication shall have the corresponding meaning provided (even whenused in lower case and not in bold):

Metadata Filing System, abbreviated herein MFS: means the inventiveintegrated software system for the management of informational objectson a computer system through the comprehensive use of metadata asdefined herein, for recognizing, organizing, creating and viewingrelationships between such objects which comprises one or more softwareapplications that provide both a user-interface and an underlyingcomponent architecture for the management and display of the user'sinformation.

Annotation or annotation metadata: means metadata that was notoriginally associated with an object, but which is defined or specifiedby either the user or the system for organizational purposes.

B-Tree: means a data structure by which information may be storedefficiently on disk, with a minimum of disk accesses to fetch aparticular piece of information using an ordered key such as a numericidentifier or a sortable string of text.

Cache: means a special storage location in memory or on disk whereobjects and their associated metadata properties may be very quicklyretrieved.

Catalog: means a special database built upon the object store thatstores and retrieves reference objects addressed by UUID and theirspecial metadata properties of this invention; performs queries onobjects by specified metadata property selection or designation;notifies other processes of the metadata property changes; and maintainsa dependency graph of objects.

Classifier: means a process by which objects are examined and assignedto one or more containers or collections for the purpose of gatheringtogether objects with similar or the same properties specified in aBoolean-type metadata expression and/or key phrase match.

Collection: means a grouping of objects based on a metadataspecification describing properties that all objects in the group havein common, or objects that were grouped together specifically by theuser as having some shared meaning or logical grouping.

Container: means an object in which other objects may be groupedtogether for the purpose of organization. A collection is a special typeof container, and containers may contain other containers.

Domain: means an object that includes processes for creating andmanaging reference objects of specific types, including new classes ofobjects, in a consistent manner. Domains permits grouping objects bynature, class of information in them, or processes of dealing with them.For example, a domain designated “EMail” may define reference objectsfor email messages; a mailbox object; a mailbox signature; and so on.The EMail domain also provides a location and retrieval process by whichmessages are retrieved from a central server and stored locally in thesystem. A domain designated “File” may define reference objects,explained below, for files, directories, and volumes, as well as ascanning and matching process that creates a mirrored representationwithin MFS of a directory subtree specified in a Working Set.

Event: an occurrence of note that may be acted upon by a thread (definedbelow) to perform a task.

Link or link metadata: means metadata that is specifically defined,updated, and accessed for the purpose of linking together and organizingreference objects logically in collections and other containers.

Metadata: means data representing a set of properties of a given typeand meaning, that is user-definable and selectable data about thecontents of an object, possibly including but having more data thanconventional, ordinary, presently used “metadata”. Examples of metadataproperties in the inventive application software system include, but arenot limited to, names; dates and times; comments; locations;descriptions; markers; icons; sizes; dimensions, exposure data, andcopyright of images; keywords and phrases; colors; annotations; links;groups; containment; ownership; access restrictions; and so on. Metadataas referred to herein is to be distinguished from currently used“ordinary metadata”, which is rudimentary data that identifies or namesan object, such as a file (e.g. “miscellaneous” or “photos”), but thatdoes not include data about the contents of an object (about the contentdata of the object). Metadata as used herein more particularly includesspecially formulated and used “annotation metadata” and “link metadata”,defined in detail in the description below, including by context andexample.

Object: means any piece of information stored in a digital format,including but not limited to file system entities such as files andfolders; specific entities such as documents, applications, images,sounds, music files, and the like; contact or name/address records,which may be stored as individual files or multiple records within asingle file; received and sent email messages; and objects that act ascontainers to hold other objects.

Object Store: means a special database that stores and retrieves objectdata by unique identifier (UID).

Property: means a user definable or selected descriptor of a certainkind for the purpose of attributing characteristics or values to anobject in the form of content information metadata that can be used toclassify objects into collections. A group of properties set, created orselected by the user or a Domain for a particular object is consideredthe object's metadata. In the inventive system, specific link metadatais a special property of all reference objects in the WS, provided toorganize reference objects logically in collections and othercontainers.

Reference Object: means an object internally created and stored in thecatalog and object store, which represents data originating externally(such as files or email messages) that are managed within WS, theinventive metadata filing system.

Thread: means a software entity that performs a particular tasksimultaneously, and asynchronously, with other threads.

Unique Identifier, UID: means an identifier that is unique within thescope of an object store.

Universally Unique Identifier, UUID: means an identifier which is usedto uniquely specify reference objects within the inventive metadatafiling system, as well as provide a one-to-one mapping between externaldata (for example, files in the file system) and reference objects.

Value: means a Boolean, float, integer, date, time, text string, image,or other measure or metric of a property of an object.

Working Set: means the set of sources of information, either createdinternally or imported from or received from external originators, thatthe inventive MFS, metadata filing system, manages. This includes datafrom file systems, either local or remote on a network; web addresses;email servers; and the like.

SUMMARY

The invention comprises a computer data processing system, described inmore detail below, that includes a central processing unit configuredwith operating system and applications software, the latter whichincludes a novel integrated computer control software system for themanagement of informational objects including recognizing, organizing,creating and viewing relationships between multiple objects. The overallinventive computer control system, given the shorthand term “MFS” formetadata filing system, includes one or more novel software applicationsthat provide both a user-interface and underlying componentarchitecture, including an object-oriented database structure, or objectstore, and a metadata database structure, or catalog, for the managementand rendering of these objects to a display viewable by a user inresponse to user input, regardless of the source or nature of theobject.

The inventive MFS computer data processing system for automaticorganization, indexing and viewing of information objects from multiplesources is characterized by: at least one central processing unitconfigured with client operating system and applications software;(and/or in the case of Internet operations the MFS system is configuredwith server software to host a site on the Internet including theserving of both static, generally informational Web pages, and dynamicWeb pages, of information to individuals including information that maybe generated on the fly in response to individual requests, routers andinterfaces including at least one client and/or network interface to atleast one network data communication device for exchange of data amongcomputers, routers and input devices); and peripheral input and outputdevices linked to said client/server central processing unit in anarchitecture so as to provide client and/or site operation andfunctionality; said central processor unit includes at least one memorycoupled to a bus; said memory including selected program structuresstored therein, including an operating system program structure, atleast one client and/or server system management program structure, atleast one hierarchical data storage management system program structure,and selected application program code structures including the novel MFScode structure described herein; said central processing unit readingdata input so as to implement system functionality selected fromoperational, computational, archival, sorting, screening,classification, formatting, rendering, printing and communicationfunctions and processes; and data record structures selectablyconfigurable in object, metadata, relational or hierarchical databasesand which data records are selectably associatable, correlatable andcallable; said central processing unit reading from user, network orInternet server input devices data relating to objects received by,created by or selected by individual users, and processing such data insaid central processing unit so as to generate and manage informationalobjects by special metadata linking to reference objects created,received or selected and/or input by users, and so as to provideinformation management tools that facilitate communication to generate,transmit and receive, archive, search, order, retrieve and renderobjects, including information organization personalized for eachindividual user based on preferences selected by the user.

The inventive MFS computer data processing system apparatus forautomatic organization, indexing and viewing of information objects frommultiple sources includes a computer-readable memory structured to storeobject information in an object oriented database and metadata in acatalog database, a computer display connected to said memory means fordisplaying said objects, a computer-operator (user) interface device forinputting information to specify objects or properties of objects,sources of external objects for management by the inventive MFS system,a computer processor connected to said memory for transferring saidspecifying information to storage in said memory, link metadata in asecond catalog database in said memory linking said specifyinginformation to said objects to provide rendering thereof on a displayfor viewing by the computer system users.

The computer(s) of the invention can be configured in a systemarchitecture, for example, as one or more client or server computer(s),database computer(s), routers, interfaces and peripheral input andoutput devices, that together implement the system and network(s) towhich a client computer system may be connected. A computer used in theinventive system typically includes at least one processor and memorycoupled to a bus. The bus may be any one or more of any suitable busstructures, including a memory bus or memory controller, peripheral bus,and a processor or local bus using any of a variety of bus architecturesand protocols. The memory typically includes volatile memory (e.g., RAM)and fixed and/or removable non-volatile memory (e.g., ROM, Flash, harddisk including in RAID arrays, floppy disc, mini-drive, Zip, Memorystick, PCMCIA card, tape, optical (CD-ROM, etc.), DVD, magneto-optical,and the like), to provide for storage of information, includingcomputer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules,operating systems, and other data used by the computer(s). A networkinterface is coupled to the bus to provide an interface to the datacommunication network (LAN, WAN, and/or Internet) for exchange of dataamong the various local network users, site computers, routers, andother computing devices. The system also includes at least oneperipheral interface coupled to the bus to provide communication withindividual peripheral devices, such as keyboards, keypads, touch pads,mouse devices, trackballs, scanners, printers, speakers, microphones,memory media readers, writing tablets, cameras, modems, network cards,RF, fiber-optic and IR transceivers, and the like,

A variety of program modules can be stored in the memory, including OS,server system programs, HSM (Hierarchical Storage Management) systemprograms, application programs including the MFS control systemprogram(s), other programs modules and data. In a net-workedenvironment, the program modules may be distributed among severalcomputing devices coupled to the network, and used as needed. When aprogram is executed, the program is at least partially loaded into thecomputer memory, and contains instructions for implementing theoperational, computational, archival, sorting, screening,classification, formatting, rendering, printing and communicationfunctions and processes described herein for the inventive MFS operationof automatic organization, indexing and viewing of information objectsfrom multiple sources.

The inventive information object management system manages theseobjects, in the applications control program CPU-configured aspect, byscanning the created, selected or incoming objects' source data, whetherfiles on disk or data provided by remote servers. When individualobjects are recognized as contained in the source data, referenceobjects within the

S system are created and tagged with UUIDs to provide a one-to-onemapping between external data and MFS reference objects. Specificknowledge of the data formats is used to extract any relevantinformation from the objects (e.g. ID3 tags for artist, genre, and so onfor music files) to be used as metadata. This metadata is attached tothe reference objects, which are stored in the catalog for fast access.As reference objects are created or are updated by MFS, they arecollected into system and user-defined collections, which provide alogical grouping of objects based on one or more of three criteria: 1)user-defined categorization; 2) user or system-defined metadata queryspecification(s); and 3) user or system-defined key phrase matching.

The inventive MFS-configured CPU(s) streamline information management byproviding a view of information objects of all domain natures(varieties) from different sources, with a simple, direct, shared andunified storage and linkage system that comprises the salientfunctionality of storage of only one object, the MFS reference object,and linking it to one or more collection groups by special user-createdor selected MFS link metadata, including a UUID, which is in turn storedin a special MFS catalog database. The link metadata, including the UIDand UUID, are aliased to the various MFS collections selected, set orcreated by the user in order to create the retrieval links from thevarious relevant collections to the reference object. The inventiveMFS-configured system automatically updates stored reference objects'metadata (names, sizes, and the like) and links (collection andcontainer membership), classifying incoming and changed objects by theircontent data and metadata, thereby automatically updating and creatingnew links to the growing number of objects in the various collections.

The inventive MFS-configured system provides an organizational structureand methodology for information management, including archival storage,retrieval, indexing, cross-referencing, logically grouping, and displayof informational objects of all kinds. Objects may be created within MFSdirectly by the user, or within MFS through software components thatcreate representations of information not stored directly within MFS,such as files and folders on a storage medium.

From the perspective of process, or method of operation of theMFS-configured computer system the CPU is caused to process as follows(by reference to an “external object” is meant an object outside MFS,although it can be one created by the client computer system or could bean incoming foreign object, that is, one sent from a distant server).When an external object is to be managed by MFS (whether incoming orlocally created), MFS creates an internal representation of the objectand stores the representation in the MFS object oriented database(OODB), called the object store, which assigns an internal uniqueidentifier (UID), upon which it is termed the “reference object” (RO).The RO is simultaneously scanned and metadata is created (including adesktop icon) and/or extracted, and this metadata is associated (bitstrings added to the object data) with the reference object. Only thismetadata (including unique reference information for finding theexternal object, called the universally-unique ID, or UUID) is stored inthe catalog database, not the entire external object itself. Thisprocess is “mirroring”, with the reference object identified within thesystem by internal UID, and the association properties metadata beingthe “image” (or “virtual image”) in the catalog. The system, as metadataare created upon selection or creation of collections or containers,“reflects” the reference object in them through tagging additional“path” and “hierarchy” link metadata to the properties metadata that isautomatically associated with the reference object and stored in thecatalog. Updates and changes to the reference objects also update themetadata in the catalog with the changes rippling throughout all theimages in all collections instantly and simultaneously. Useridentification, selection, or creation of a collection writes themetadata for the selected object; dragging and dropping an object into acollection or container also auto-writes to the metadata, adding therelevant link. Searching the metadata, via automatic or user selected orcreated queries recalls the single reference object from the OODB, andif selected, the external object is retrieved from the external source(hard drive or other data storage), permitting a comprehensive desktopinterface.

The inventive MFS-configured computer system application programs may bewritten in a wide range of computer languages, a suitable exemplarylanguage being the C++ language. A number of equivalent versions of theinventive MFS program(s) can be written by a person skilled in the artof software development upon an understanding of the architecture,methodology and functional features disclosed herein. The inventive MFSapplications can be run on a standard computer system architectureincluding a standard industry computer processor, input/output devices,a bitmapped display, and at least one primary defined physical datastorage area for temporary and permanent storage of data objects.

The following summary of the features of the inventive WS-configuredcomputer system(s) and how these features are functionally realized willenable one skilled in the art to write suitable code for applicationsthat realize the WS functionality.

Collections: The inventive MFS-configured CPU control programsimultaneously classifies objects into multiple containers using linkmetadata rather than duplication, thereby allowing users to categorizeobjects in ways that most clearly reflect different approaches and waysof viewing the same information. Users can select predeterminedcollections provided in a basic menu, such as Family, Friends, Work, ToDo, Activities, and Vacation when running the WS program for the firsttime, and can create and set up user-defined collections as well.

Drag-And-Drop Categorization: Another feature of the inventiveWS-configured computer system enables the user to organize all kinds ofinformation, not merely simple files, through a drag-and-dropwindows-and-icons software functionality, making it easy to organizeobjects and cross-reference them from place to place using adesktop-style interface. That is, clicking on the icon or list referenceto an object in one collection window and dragging it into anothercollection window establishes a new link; the object is now accessiblefrom both collections. And, rather than being duplicated in an objectdatabase, only the link metadata is placed in the catalog, with thatcatalog being updated for retrieval of the reference object from eithercollection. This drag-and-drop linkage creation without duplication isan extremely powerful function of the inventive application program.

Dynamic Queries: Another function of the inventive MFS-configuredcomputer system provides novel ways to show relationships betweeninformation objects based on shared properties by querying the WSmetadata and creating links dynamically, including but not limited tomatching key phrases in an object's textual properties; matching datesand times, including date and time ranges or exact matches; filtering onsizes, ordering, or type; and so forth.

Partitioned Storage: Another function of the inventive WS applicationsprogram structure provides a unique and efficient mechanism for storageof objects and their properties, for fast and dynamic updating andretrieval, a partitioned storage organization comprising a catalog (ametadata database) and object store (an object database for storingobject data, including B-Tree nodes, foundation and reference objects).

View By Reference: Another function of the inventive MFS programprovides a novel mechanism for presenting non-apparent or unexpectedrelationships between objects by leveraging both the system's and theuser's categorization mechanisms to show only relevant informationthrough filtering and cross-referencing.

Sticky Paths: Another function of the inventive WS program provides avariety of hierarchical views of objects and their containmentrelationships and/or location paths within the user's computer system,including but not limited to list views whereby the visible objects'containment hierarchies are continuously made visible in adynamically-updating portion of the window.

People, Activities, Time Orientation: Another function of the inventiveWS-configured computer system provides a basic set of organizationalprinciples so users can intuitively manage their information in a waythat reflects the information's relationships as they occur in the realworld, including organizations based on people, projects, activities,time, places, etc.

Consistency Maintenance: Another function of the inventive WS-configuredsystem keeps all object relationships up to date automatically, so thatany changes in the user's information space (e.g., desktop) results intimely and appropriate changes to any object views.

Automatic Hypertext Linking: Another function of the inventiveMFS-configured system utilizes the existing organizational structuresand data to automatically create links between objects, including butnot limited to hypertext inks in textual properties of objects such asthe bodies of email messages or the contents of a document.

Extensible Domains: Another function of the inventive MFS-configuredsystem provides a plug-in mechanism for other applications to takeadvantage of the features of the invention: MFS provides interfaces topermit one or more client applications to actively create new objectsfor, apply properties to, store, link, and classify the clientapplication's information such that it may be viewed and collected inthe same way as any other objects in the system. MFS provides thesoftware functionality to dynamically restructure and link preexistingfile systems, files, and databases in a way that is modular, scalable,and extensible.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES AND DRAWINGS

The invention is described in more detail by reference to the figuresand drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an overview of the inventive system's major features;

FIG. 2 is a depiction of the Mirrored Object System;

FIG. 3 describes the Property-Based Information Access;

FIG. 4 is a display depicting the MFS inventive system desktopinterface;

FIG. 5 is a display showing the preview viewing mode for images;

FIG. 6 is a display of the list viewing mode;

FIGS. 7a, 7b and 7c show several displays of the small and large iconviews, with added property tags;

FIG. 8 includes two displays depicting the view scaling mechanism;

FIGS. 9a and 9b include two displays of the image and text window views;

FIGS. 10a and 10b show two displays of the Information windows for imageand music files;

FIGS. 11a and 11b show two displays of the content view mode, for imagesand email;

FIGS. 12a and 12b describe the sticky path mechanism for viewinghierarchies in a list format;

FIG. 13 depicts link metadata between objects and collections;

FIG. 14 shows two displays of creating a collection of JPEG image files;

FIG. 15 shows two displays of creating a collection of objects relatedto Scandinavia by key phrase;

FIGS. 16a and 16b depict the hyperlinking mechanism for objects withtextual properties;

FIG. 17 shows an information window displaying the multipleclassification of an image;

FIG. 18 shows a contact object and its corresponding collection;

FIG. 19 depicts creation of a new object, and dynamic updating of acollection classifying same;

FIG. 20 is a display depicting the Today collection, showing all objectsthat had activity today;

FIG. 21 is a display of Today, cross-referenced by collection;

FIG. 22 is a refinement of FIG. 21, Today cross-referenced by Receivedemail;

FIG. 23 is a depiction of the domain mechanism for extending MFS;

FIG. 24 shows adding folders to the MFS working set;

FIGS. 25a and 25b show the workspace during and after folders have beenadded;

FIG. 26 shows the workspace view;

FIG. 27 shows the standard container and content views;

FIG. 28 shows a sticky path view;

FIG. 29 shows creation of a collection;

FIG. 30 shows manually adding objects to a collection;

FIG. 31 shows a metadata query specification for a collection;

FIG. 32 is a schematic describing an overview of consistencymaintenance: how objects are processed within the inventive system toupdate properties, classified into collections, and notified of changesby other objects;

FIG. 33 is a schematic describing in detail the updater process: howobjects' properties are updated and their values stored into themetadata catalog;

FIG. 34 is a schematic describing in detail the synchronizer process:how changed metadata is written back to the object store;

FIG. 35 is a schematic describing in detail the notifier: how objectsare notified of changes in metadata, and when the classifier and updaterare notified of changes;

FIG. 36 is a schematic describing the classifier process: how objectsare processed for classification into collections; and

FIG. 37 is a schematic describing in detail the classification of asingle object.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description illustrates the invention by way ofexample, not by way of limitation of the principles of the invention.This description will clearly enable one skilled in the art of computerprogramming and software design to make and use the invention, anddescribes several embodiments, adaptations, variations, alternatives,and uses of the inventions, including what we presently believe is thebest mode of carrying out the invention.

In this regard, the invention is illustrated in the several figures, andis of sufficient complexity that the many parts, interrelationships, andsub-combinations thereof simply cannot be fully illustrated in a singlepatent-type drawing. For clarity and conciseness, several of thedrawings show in schematic, or omit, parts that are not essential inthat drawing to a description of a particular feature, functionality,aspect or principle of the invention being disclosed. Thus, the bestmode embodiment of one feature may be shown in one drawing, and the bestmode of another feature will be called out in another drawing.

All publications, patents and applications cited in this specificationare herein incorporated by reference as if each individual publication,patent or application had been expressly stated to be incorporated byreference.

The Inventive System Implementation

The operation of the inventive MFS-configured computer system isenabled, and by way of example, embodied in one or more softwareprogram(s) that configure the CPU to provide(s) the functionalitiesdescribed above. The overview of the system architecture is shown inFIG. 1 as implementing a Mirrored Object System providing Property-BasedInformation Access, through a Comprehensive Desktop Interface, withCollections Providing Logical Groupings, with a unique method of ViewingBy Reference, as an Extensible Platform. Each of these functionalitiesis described below, with reference to corresponding figures anddiscussion.

FIG. 1 illustrates a computer system comprising a computer 101 with anoutput display screen, an input keyboard and a memory unit, such as ahard drive, 110, and one or more network link(s) via an e-mail server114. MFS, 1 comprises code modules, described in detail below, thatinteract as shown by the arrows, including: classifier 102, notifier103, updater 104, synchronizer 105, a display, layout and input/outputmanager 106, the catalog metadata database 107, and the object storereference object database 108. Representative domains viewable on thedesktop include a file domain 109, a music domain 111, images domain 112an e-mail domain 113 and a personal information domain 115. The e-maildomain is linked through a network for the communication of files, musicand images to and from a network link, e.g. the Internet.

Mirrored Object System.

MFS, by which is meant the inventive system disclosed herein, comprisesone or more application(s) for organizing all types of text and imageinformation—from word processing documents and spreadsheets; to webpages and multimedia; to illustrations, images, movies, and photographs;to contacts, notes, and appointments; to sounds and music; or anythingelse that is stored and retrieved on a computer—using the concept ofextensible properties and link information stored as unified metadata(annotation and link metadata) associated with a reference object.

Many of the different instances of information that a user may want toorganize are already stored as different types of files in the filesystem, or otherwise external to the user's client computer or theuser's MFS, such as web pages on the World Wide Web or records in anonline database. Some information is stored one-for-one: that is, asingle file represents a single piece of information (say, a text file).Other information is aggregated into a single file, or is spread acrossmultiple files: for example, email messages are typically stored many toa file due to their small size, and records in a database may be storedacross multiple files as well. MFS provides the software-enabledcomputer system functionality so that the user can manage all of thesedifferent sizes and types of information through portable andreplicatable links to reference objects without repetitive duplicationand with automatic updating. Only one of each reference object is storedin the object store, and the reference objects mirror one-for-one thepieces of information found externally (external to MFS as describedabove).

MFS may be used concurrently with other software or applications thatoperationally configure the computer system to modify the external datasources; these sources do not notify MFS of any changes, nor do theother applications that make changes in the system. MFS provides aninternal client computer mechanism for noticing external changes in datasources such as individual files that may contain objects of interest,and for creating, deleting, or updating the appropriate referenceobjects within MFS as necessary, by comparing external data sources withthe reference objects and making the appropriate additions, deletionsand changes in the reference objects and metadata. (See FIG. 2).

Property-Based Information Access.

A property is information about an object. Currently properties are usedin conventional metadata format in a primitive form on computers:filenames, modification dates, folders, and possibly comments. The MFSinventive system, through the use of unified metadata (locally-stored,having been extracted from the original object, as well as links andannotations created by MFS) makes possible the attachment ofsystem-defined as well as user-selected or created extensible propertiesabout the content data of, or in, the object for different types ofobjects, thereby organizing information, regardless of the nature of theobject, based on the unified metadata values stored in the catalog bythe MFS inventive system.

MFS maintains for each kind of object the conventional, ordinary typesof properties that common operating systems support—name andmodification date, and the folder in which the file is stored—as well aslinks and annotations in the form of corresponding metadata defined bythe MFS itself. In addition, for images, MFS stores and maintains up todate in the catalog metadata representing the image dimensions in pixelsand the pixel size, as well as resolution, size, and quality. For musicfiles, MFS stores as metadata the album, artist, song title, genre andlength of song in the catalog. For contacts, the metadata informationstored is the typical contact record: first and last name, phonenumbers, and so on in the catalog. For Adobe documents, specialAdobe-specific properties called XMP (Extended Metadata Protocol) isread from each document and stored in the metadata database catalog aswell. These properties may be available by examining the images, musicfiles, Adobe files, and so on, but are not available in a way that makesit easy to organize these pieces of information due to the data beingembedded in the files in proprietary and changeable formats. MFSextracts the selected properties and stores them in the catalog in theform of metadata, where they may be viewed, modified, and used forclassification into collections. These are only a few of the differenttypes of objects managed by MFS, and the types of objects managed isunlimited by the system architecture.

Because of the use of a special metadata data storage structure in theMFS, the catalog, it is very easy and fast to find the informationneeded. Objects may be quickly retrieved by any expression denotingdesired property values stored in the MFS metadata. Since MFS provides aseparate location to store this metadata and relationships, MFS may beused with any operating system regardless of the metadata supported bythe operating system directly. (See FIG. 3)

Comprehensive Desktop Interface.

MFS presents information in a familiar desktop-style interface, withwindows that show objects as icons or list views, among others. Windowand icon sizes and locations are maintained persistently, to preservethe user's spatial arrangements. FIG. 4 shows a list of folders (401),an icon view of Photoshop files (402), a list of user-definedcollections and the counts of objects within (403), a list of domains(404), a partially-hidden text view (405), a contact record (406), anote (407), and an appointment (408).

MFS goes much farther than other desktop interfaces, however, inproviding new and innovative viewing mechanisms that leverage theability of MFS to store and retrieve arbitrary metadata.

For example, preview images are created and stored by MFS asannotations, and can be very quickly displayed in a slide view. FIG. 5shows a typical MFS window with the object name (501), a type identifiershowing that it is a collection (502), a count of the objects displayed(503), a get info button (504), and a content region in which theobjects are shown (505).

In a list view, FIG. 6, appropriate properties are shown for the typesof objects being viewed; no longer is the user limited to viewing onlythe basic name-size-and-date list view. For example, music propertiesare shown when appropriate, since they are stored as metadata in thecatalog and can be quickly retrieved. FIG. 6 shows the Music collection(601), with columns for filename (602), song title (603), artist (604),and genre (605). List views may be sorted ascending or descending; thecontrol (606) determines this, while clicking on the column headersdetermine the property on which to sort.

In the icon views of FIGS. 7a, 7b and 7c , arbitrary layouts of iconsand their related properties are possible; this can be doneprogrammatically, or laid out by user preference. The standard viewadornments (701 through 704) are available, and the content may beviewed either as large icon (705), large icon with additional propertiesavailable (706), or small icon (707).

As shown in FIG. 8, all views may be scaled within the window,regardless of view type (icon or list). Window (801) is scaled at 100%,while window (802) is scaled at 150%. Views may also be sorted by avariety of properties that are shared by most objects: by name, by date,by size, by count (for folders and other containers); and by kind. Thisis also extensible by WS to new property types.

As illustrated in FIGS. 9a and 9b , objects may also be viewed directlyin their own windows. Images and text files in particular are easilyexamined within WS, allowing the user direct access to the data. Theimage window has the typical adornments (901-904; note that 903 displaysthe image size and percentage zoom) and the content region (905)displays the image itself. Resizing the window also resizes the image tofit the window. A text window has the standard adornments (906-909; notethat 908 displays the text file size) and the content region (910)displays the file's text.

Because each object type may have different WS-usable metadata that canbe extracted or synthesized from the original content data, theinformation window changes depending on the type of object being viewed.For example, FIGS. 10a and 10b show that image files present theirmetadata properties (resolution, dimensions, and so on) differently thanmusic files (artist, song title, genre). An image file informationwindow displays the file name (1001), tabs for file and photo data (1002and 1003), and image-file-specific information such as width, height,resolution, and depth (1004). All information windows have a tab to showcomments (1005) as well as a view of containers in which the objectresides (1006), and relevant contacts and projects. A Music fileinformation window displays the filename (1007), common file information(1008), and custom properties for music files including title, artist,album, and genre (1009).

Sometimes it is convenient to view objects in a single window withoutopening new windows for each. MFS provides this through the contentview, illustrated in FIGS. 11a and 11b . For example, when viewingimages, the content view is divided into a view of the objects in thecontainer (1101) and the content of the selected object (1102). Ofcourse, this is not limited to showing individual objects. Foldercontents, contacts, email, and so on may also be viewed in this way. Alist of email messages (1103) may be examined one at a time by selectingthem; the contents are shown in the right hand pane (1104).

Finally, MFS provides a unique list view feature. List views can havearbitrary columns for property values, depending on the type of objectsbeing displayed; these can be determined programmatically or by userpreference. As is common in list-type views of data, objects in the viewthat are containers for other objects may be expanded, showing theircontents in-line with the other objects in the list, and generallyindented to indicate depth in the hierarchy.

One of the problems with a list view is that it is easy to lose one'splace when scrolling through a hierarchical list of containers. When theuser is looking at an item in the list, how does the user know what thatitem's container is if it has scrolled off the top? The hierarchicalpath is easily forgotten. The unique sticky path view functionality ofMFS, shown in FIGS. 12a and 12b , displays hierarchies in list format,while also maintaining a current-path view at the top of the window(1201) that keeps the user oriented as to location in the hierarchy (onthe path) as scrolling occurs. In this way the user always knows whatthe path is to the items and where the items (or, conversely, the user)are in the hierarchy. As the user scrolls through the list, MFSmaintains a Sticky Path Pane at the top of the window that alwaysdisplays the path to the topmost item in the list (1202, 1204, 1206),updating dynamically. When the path changes (branches) due to scrolling,the sticky path redraws to correctly identify the new current path. Onlythe bottom part of the window (1203, 1205, 1207) scrolls while the pathis updated as required. Each branch successively “sticks” in amulti-line window at the top of the scroll window.

Collections Providing Logical Groupings.

The MFS system tags objects of various kinds with the specialattributes, links, and general descriptive metadata described above.Users may leverage this MFS metadata information to logically grouprelated objects through special containers called collections.Collections permit selection of objects and contain objects that arelogically-grouped by 1) user-defined categorization; 2) user orsystem-defined metadata query; and 3) user or system-defined key phrasematching.

User-defined categorization is enabled by a user directly specifyingthat a given object belongs to a given collection; this is generallyachieved through dragging the object to the collection's icon in awindow, though there are additional ways to provide user-definedcategorization. This updates specific link metadata in both the objectand the collection to indicate the relationship between the objects.(FIG. 13)

User-defined metadata queries, as shown in FIG. 14, provide automaticgrouping of objects that share certain property values. These areBoolean metadata expressions used by WS to define which objects shouldbelong to the collection (in addition to those that were categorized bythe user). For example, a collection of all JPEG files may be created bythe user selecting (via a MFS-provided popup menus, and/or a type-inquery line) all objects in the system that have names that end in .jpgor .jpeg, or have a file type of JPEG. The objects are immediatelyretrieved and displayed in the collection window. The collection'smetadata query is specified in an information window, which consists ofthe collection name (1401) and a pane of terms (1402) which must besatisfied for objects to be collected. When the information window isclosed, the collection window is shown with the collected objects(1403). Time-based collections, such as “Today”, dynamically modifytheir metadata queries to reflect the meaning of the collection. Forexample, Today will update the metadata query each day to correctlyspecify only those objects whose modification date is during the currentday. Time-based collections are particularly applicable to viewing byreference.

User- or system-defined Key Phrase Matching shown in FIG. 15 providesfor automatic grouping of objects whose textual contents contain certainkey phrases. For example, to group all emails, text files, etc. thatmention cities and countries in Scandinavia, a collection may be createdfor that purpose with a query based on key words or phrases that arerelated to Scandinavia, and MFS will collect them together. As before,the collection's Information window specifies the collection definition;its name (1501) and a list of key phrases (1502), at least one of whichmust exist in an object for it to be collected. The result collection isdisplayed in a standard WS icon window (1503).

As shown in FIGS. 16a and 16b , because collections can group objectsbased on key phrases as well as by metadata properties, examining theobjects can provide automatic cross-indexing and hypertext linking basedon the collections defined. Text windows (1601) are annotated byunderlining and coloring hypertext-linked phrases (1602). Clicking on alink will provide a popup of the collections that specify that keyphrase (1603); choosing one will open that collection. If more than onecollection specifies the same key phrases, all appropriate collectionswill be listed.

An important aspect of the inventive MFS-enabled computer system controlprogram is shown in FIG. 17. Since it simply modifies the metadata linksto indicate collection and container membership, and does not move orcopy the original objects at all, objects may be classified into severaldifferent collections at once. For example, this image is in the Imagescollection; it is taken from the air and so was categorized in theFlying collection; it is a JPEG file so it is in the JPEG collection;it's a photo of children, so it is in the Kids collection; it was takenduring a trip to Mono Lake, so it is in the Mono Lake (Blake) folder;and finally, the children in the photo are in the Ward family. All thecontainers that contain the object are listed (1701) and can be openeddirectly. In this way the user is spared from having to decide whatsingle folder the file or object should be stored; collections can haveMFS metadata links to many objects, and object links may be stored inmany different collections. For example, an automobile repair bill canbe filed in Auto, Repairs, and Bills simultaneously.

By way of further enabling example, a typical logical grouping involvesPeople, Places and Activities. As part of the Personal InformationManagement Domain, MFS provides the ability to create named collectionsfor places, as well as contacts and projects, around which objects maybe grouped. A collection is defined for each contact, and for everyproject currently being worked on.

As shown in FIG. 18, MFS automatically creates such collections andorganizes your email and files by examining them for the contact orproject name. Automatic collections may be extended as desired; forexample, if contacts have nicknames it would be appropriate for theircollections to search for their nicknames as well. In a Contact window(1801) a Collection button (1802) opens the Collection that isautomatically linked (1803). Note how the Bruce Horn collection hascollected together all emails that reference “Bruce Horn” as well as allof the source files that were written by Bruce Horn in the developmentof MFS.

While metadata-query specification and key phrase matching can be viewedas database queries, collections are also dynamic: when new objectsappear, or objects are edited by the user that then satisfy the metadataquery, the collections are updated immediately. The collections need notbe visible for this to occur, as MFS operates in the background. Allcollections are kept up to date at all times.

For example, as shown in FIG. 19, creating a new note regarding a tripto Norway this summer is automatically added to the Scandinaviacollection. The original collection (1901) does not include the note(1902) until it is created and the word Norway is noted by MFS; then itis added (1903) and hyper-linked automatically (1904).

One easy way to leverage MFS's metadata capability is to writemeaningful descriptions in the comment field for files that can besearched by collections. While some operating systems, such as Mac OS9,provide direct support for storage of comments, MFS supports commentsfor all objects whether or not the operating system does. All metadatacreated for objects within MFS is available, whether or not the hostoperating system provides such a feature.

Viewing by Reference.

Because a collection specifies what objects should appear in thecollection, objects may be in many different collections simultaneouslyif they satisfy each of the collections' specifications. This is a greatbenefit in that it allows the user to view data in a variety of ways.For example, a car repair bill can appear in the Car collection, theRepairs collection, and Bills simultaneously.

The more collections there are, the more different ways there are toexamine and navigate through information. Each collection is defined bythe user as a meaningful way to view objects in the user's informationspace. The unique MFS cross-reference display, combined with a dynamic,time-based collection set, provides the user insight into therelationships between various objects.

This display is called view by reference. For example, the user mightwant to view what has happened today: what new email has been received,and what documents have been created or modified. The Today collectionshows this in FIG. 20. The collection window (2001) is the same as anyother Collection with the exception that the query is automaticallymaintained by MFS, changing as necessary.

As shown in FIG. 21, now, by switching to the reference view, the usersees all the collections that contain objects that were created ormodified today. This is extremely useful in that it filters for onlythose collections that are relevant to Today, with no refinement (2101).Instead of showing all of the collections for all of the people that mayhave sent email in the past, the reference view shows only thecollections that have had activity today. For example, by clicking onthe Received collection (2102), the view shows the all received email(2103).

Further, as shown in FIG. 22, if the user is only interested in theReceived email today, the reference view can be further refined bydouble-clicking on the Received collection in the left pane. This movesthe Received collection to the shelf above (2201), and now only thosecollections relevant to Received email Today are visible. Clicking oneach collection in turn shows the collection's objects that fit thespecification. Selecting the Financial collection (2202) shows all theemail received today that is related to financial news (2203).

Because MFS remembers settings and views, the user can set upcollections and preferred ways of viewing them and keep them availableat all times, constantly updated. A user may prefer to always view emailthrough the Received collection, filtered by Today; if the user everchooses to view previous days' email she can always view by other timecollections such as Last Week, Last Month, or all received email.

Extensible Platform.

Although many of the types of objects that people use in their dailywork with computers are already provided by MFS, there are manyscenarios where third-parties might want to leverage the power of MFS'sdesktop metaphor, single reference object storage, metadata linkingfunctionality, and collection capabilities.

MFS provides an extension mechanism by which new object types, newviews, and new capabilities are easily added to MFS such that theirfunctionality is presented as seamlessly as built-in MFS features.Extensions of this sort are provided in MFS through Domains. While theMFS email and personal information domains provide much of what thestandard user may want and are built in as basic applicationfunctionalities, other email and PIM domains can be developed thatfunction within MFS following the principles of the invention disclosedherein.

Examples of other significant domains that may be developed include, butare not limited to: a music jukebox, a domain that allows the user toorganize his/her music in the same way as every other piece ofinformation in MFS; an extended Image cataloger domain; WebDAV supportdomain; personal finance domain; and many more. These can be easilysupported and implemented within the MFS architecture as disclosedherein. (FIG. 23)

Description Summary.

The extensible architecture of the inventive system enables disparateapplications to share and merge information: email, contacts, notes, andso on are stored in the same data space, and can refer and cross-indexeach other as needed. Separate email databases, personal informationmanagement systems, and file browsers cannot perform this task.All-in-one solutions, such as Microsoft Outlook, or application suitessuch as Microsoft Office, are limited to the functionality provided bythe original developer, and cannot be extended by third parties. Theinventive MFS-enabled computer system's catalog mechanism providesunlimited support for new types of objects and new metadata, regardlessof the underlying file system or operating system's features or lackthereof.

Being able to organize all of these disparate types of information usingthe same mechanism provides unique benefits. For example, a user canmaintain a collection of all correspondence to and from a given personor related to a particular project easily, whether the correspondencewas via email, documents, voice mail, fax, or image files. Similarly, auser may organize his information on a project-by-project basis; becausea given item may appear in many different collections simultaneously, aperson may work on several projects and their contact information willtherefore appear in all of the relevant projects.

The system architecture and methodology in providing dynamic collectionfunctionality (such as time-based collections: Today, Yesterday, LastYear, and so on), combined with real-time updating and referencing(Viewing by Reference), provides a unique and valuable mechanism forexamining a user's changing information environment.

Finally, the benefits and advantages of the inventive data organizationand archival system includes real-time updating of collections, whichallows the software to notify the user in a variety of ways as objectsenter and leave collections. For example, the user may want to attach anotification to a given person's collection, so that when the userreceives email from that person a particular musical piece is played, ora voice speaks a phrase.

By way of further description of the inventive system, the following isa specific example of the use of an application program, having thefunctionalities outlined above which one skilled in the art willrecognize is enabled in the following description, including wherepertinent, pseudocode outlines.

Exemplary Methods of Use of the Inventive MFS-Enabled System

The following is a step-by-step description of a typical use of theinventive system, embodied in a computer program running on a client(user) computer with a standard operating system and file system tostore documents and other data. The use described below is of organizingand retrieving images created with a digital camera and stored on thecomputer in individual image files.

Adding Sources to the Working Set

In order to inform MFS of sources of information to track, the user mustgive MFS the appropriate directions and specifications so that MFS mayfind and cross-index the information. In the case of an email source,the user creates a mailbox within MFS and lists the internet addressesof the servers needed (e.g. POP/SMTP or IMAP servers). In the case oftracking information stored in files and directories in a file system,the user clicks on a folder in the computer's desktop application (theFinder in the Macintosh OS, or Explorer in Microsoft Windows) and dragsit to the workspace window to add it to MFS's working set. Other sourceswill require different mechanisms.

The following describes use of MFS to manage and organize files in afile system; in particular, image files. For example, assume that, overa period of time, a particular computer user has taken thousands ofdigital images with his/her digital camera, in various places, includingimages of various friends and family. Assume further that he/she hasalready grouped these images in folders with descriptive names such as“Crest Hike 6/01” and “Cycle Oregon 9/02”. These images may, in general,have embedded information in the form of metadata properties, such asimage size, bit depth, date on which the photo was taken, etc.

The user starts the MFS program, and, by dragging the desired folders ofimages to the MFS workspace, begins the organization process. (FIG. 24)

MFS brings up a window showing the progress of the importing process,while MFS scans each file and folder, recursively, in the working set(FIG. 25a ). At the end of this process, the window is removed, and thefolders appear in the Workspace. (FIG. 25b ).

Viewing User Data

The user may now navigate this folder using the standard and traditionalmethods of disk navigation in graphical user interfaces: double-clickingto open the folder into a new window; clicking on the disclosuretriangle to show the folder's contents in the same view; and so on. Thewindows display the images in a variety of ways, including well-knownicon and list views showing icons representing either the type of thefile (such as a Photoshop JPEG file) or a miniature “slide” view(thumbnail) of the image itself. Displayed with the icon, typically, areproperties of the object such as the object's physical size, its imagedimensions, the last modified date, and so on. MFS provides additionalfeatures for viewing the images; viewing the image properties (width,height, bit depth, and so on), and basic editing features (rotation, forexample).

MFS also provides a Workspace view (FIG. 26) in which the followinginformation is visible in four separate panes:

-   -   a. the original folders from which the images were examined (the        working set); (2601)    -   b. a list of all collections defined by MFS and the user; (2602)    -   c. a content pane, which dynamically displays the contents of        whatever item is selected in the first two views (2603). In the        case of a folder or collection, the contents of the folder or        collection is shown in an icon or list view; in the case of an        individual item, the item itself is shown in detail (such as the        full image, or contact information)    -   d. and a metadata pane, which describes the currently-selected        item's metadata, including the set of containers to which the        item belongs. (2604)

The user may double-click on any of the folders in the top-left pane,collections in the bottom-left pane, or any item in the metadatacollection set to open them in a new window.

Two other views are available (FIG. 27): a standard window, whichdisplays the content of a folder, collection or item (2701); and acontent window (2702), which displays a list of the objects within afolder or collection on the left and the details of the selected objecton the right.

Double-clicking on any item opens a window on that item, at which pointthe user may choose how to view the item's contents. Other data,typically considered to be the object's metadata properties (e.g. name,modification date, and so on) may be displayed by selecting the item andchoosing the Get Info command, which will bring up a custom informationwindow for each type of object that displays that object's particularproperties. For example, a music file would be able to show the musicgenre, album name, and so on, while an image file would show image widthand height, along with other image-specific metadata.

Folders and collections may be viewed in a list format with the stickypath view, described above. This provides dynamic path information tothe items you are viewing as you scroll through a hierarchical (folderswithin folders) list. (FIG. 28)

Creating a Collection

By selecting the New Collection command, the user creates a newcollection for organizing the images. (FIG. 29) Two windows are thenopened: the first showing the contents of the untitled empty collection,and the second, above, showing the information about the collectionincluding the collection's title (2901). The user then types in a namefor the collection—for example, “Western Travel”—and closes the window.The main collection window remains (2902), and an icon for thecollection is created in the Workspace collection pane (2903).

Manually Categorizing Objects into Collections

The user may now view images from any of the source folders, and bydragging their icon representations to either the collection window orthe icon representation in the Workspace, add those images to thecollection. This does not move the images, nor modify them in any way;it simply updates the links in the catalog indicating that they belongto the collection. Items from any source may be dragged in this way toany collection, and items may belong to more than one collection at atime. (FIG. 30)

The user may also quickly create a collection of images by selecting theimages and choosing the Collect command; this gathers together theimages into a collection, which then may be renamed by the user.

Items may be re-categorized into different collections by dragging themto the new collections directly. Also, items may be removed from acollection by choosing the Remove command, which removes the items fromthe collection but does not otherwise delete the item from the source(e.g. the file system) or any other collections.

Creating a Collection with a Metadata Specification Query

Once the user has told MFS which information on the disk should betracked, independent collections based on the metadata of images, saythe width or height properties, may be made of the items imported aswell. These collections are the same collections as described before,with the additional specification of a metadata query.

For example, say that the user would like to collect all images thathave a width of 1600 pixels and a height of 1200 pixels. The user wouldthen do the following:

Choose New Collection from the File menu. A window opens, showing thecontents of the untitled empty collection, and a Get-Info sub-windowopens above that with information about the collection.

The user selects the “untitled” text and changes it to “1600×1200Images”. Then the user clicks on the Query tab. An empty query appears.The user clicks on the popup menu and chooses Image.

The user clicks on the (+) button, creating a term in the query. Theuser clicks on the first popup, choosing the “Width” property. The userclicks on the second popup, choosing the “Equals” property. The usertypes 1600 into the text field.

Then, then user clicks on the (+) button again, creating a second term,and clicks on the OR popup menu. The user then performs similaroperations to choose “Height Equals”, and types 1200 into the text box.

Finally, the user closes the Get Info subwindow, and the appropriateimages appear in the collection window. (FIG. 31).

Creating a Collection with a Key Phrase List

Another variant of the collection is one that collects items thatinclude in their textual properties specific key phrases. For example, aScandinavia collection may be quickly created by specifying a collectionthat includes the key phrases “Oslo”, “Norway”, “Bergen”, “Copenhagen”,“the little mermaid,” and so on. Items with textual properties, such asa file comment or the contents of a text file that include any of thesewill be gathered into the collection.

Synchronizing with Changes

From time to time, the user may want to ensure that the data he/she isviewing from within MFS is consistent with the data from the outsidesources, such as the file system. The user may then choose the Updatecommand to tell MFS that it should synchronize its mirrored datastructures with those elsewhere (such as the file system, the emailservers, and so on). MFS will then update all information stored in thecatalog and object store as required; the user will simply see thechanges in the items (e.g. new items in a folder window; changed names;etc.) as they are discovered.

Overview of Specific Functional Modules Enabling the Inventive System

An exemplary MFS-enabled computer system to implement the inventiveinformation management features comprises the following elements fromwhich one skilled in the art will be enabled to make and use MFS:

-   -   a. a computer system as described above including a CPU, one or        more input peripheral a display device and an operating system;    -   b. an object store data structure in which data is stored        persistently on a device such as a disk drive;    -   c. a set of foundation objects that define items, containers,        and collections, and which may be refined for particular uses;    -   d. a catalog data structure in which foundation objects and        their properties are maintained, using the object store for        reading and writing low-level data;    -   e. a set of consistency maintenance threads that manage        information flow through the system, comprising at least one of        each of: an updater, which is responsible for maintaining        correct metadata for objects; a notifier, which manages        dependency relationships between objects; a classifier, which        assigns objects to containers and collections based on their        property values; and a synchronizer, which is responsible for        writing changed metadata back to the object store.    -   f. a display and layout system, consisting of window management        routines; scenes for displaying groups of objects; figures for        each object's display; forms for defining figure layout of        properties; and a set of views for displaying various types of        content data; and    -   g. a set of domains, which define objects and behaviors for        different information-management tasks such as personal        information management (contacts, appointments, and so on); file        management (files, folders, documents, and so on); and also        define scanners and matchers, which are responsible for scanning        external data sources, creating and updating reference objects        for each of the external objects that will be managed within        MFS.

FIG. 32 describes in overview the communications between these modules.The object store (3201) sets and gets values, communicating with thesynchronizer (3202). The catalog (3203) reads and writes values throughthe synchronizer to the catalog's property B-Trees when values change.The updater (3204) determines what the values of properties should befor various objects, and is notified by the notifier (3205) when thesynchronizer (3202) writes changes to the object store (3201). Theclassifier (3206) determines what collections objects should be in, andruns when the notifier (3205) tells it of changes. It then writes newvalues for object's container list causing the catalog (3203) to writeback the container list through the synchronizer (3202) and finally tothe object store (3201).

The Object Store

The fundamental storage mechanism for MFS architecture is anobject-oriented data-base, or the object store, that provides permanentand temporary storage facilities for low-level objects. This objectstore is capable of saving and restoring the complete state of anyobject, thus providing a persistent repository of the user'sinformation.

Implementation.

Object classes are registered with the object store at programinitialization time, in order to inform the object store of the classesof objects that may be created by reading from the store. When an objectis requested, the object store looks up the class of the object, whichis noted in the data header of the object in the store, and requeststhat the object be created by the class.

A class whose instances can be stored in the object store provide sixbasic operations: Initialize, StreamIn, StreamOut, StreamLength,Reference, and Finalize.

Initialize is called by the object store after the object is read intomemory to allow it to perform any one-time setup that is required.

StreamIn, StreamOut, StreamLength are functions that are called to askthe object to create a flattened representation of the object'sinformation. This may include references to other objects, values, orraw data. These operations are called by the object store when creatingan object to initialize the object's state from a stream of data readfrom the store, or to transform the object into a flat stream of datafor writing out to the store. In this way each object class specifiesthe particular information that must be written in order that the objectmay be completely recreated at a future time.

Reference is called by the object store to traverse an object'sreference tree. If a given object has references to any other objects,Reference must be defined to provide access to these references. This isused to attach recursively all objects that are referenced by a givenobject when the main object is attached to the object store. Similarly,when an object is detached the object store detaches all objectsreferenced by it that are referenced by that object. This operationallows the object store to determine where references to other objectsoccur within a given object, to allow objects within the store tocontain other objects as parts.

Finalize is called just before the object is written out to the objectstore. It allows the object to perform any final cleanup before theobject ceases to exist in memory.

Objects are attached to the object store to allow them to be storedpersistently within the object store, and are detached from the objectstore when they are no longer persistent. Objects have a UID that isunique in the object store that never changes during the life of theprogram. Objects may be referenced and loaded from the object store byusing this UID. The object store automatically calls the correctconstructor for creating an object given an object's UID by looking upthe object's class, which also resides in the object store.

All storable objects maintain a reference count for memory management.Objects that are attached to the object store may be written to theobject store and removed from memory when their reference counts reachone (e.g. are only referenced by the object store). Objects that are notattached to the object store are reclaimed when their reference countsreach zero. Circular references are not detected nor managed in any way.A special smart pointer structure keeps track of when objects are beingused in the program, and increments and decrements the reference countas needed. This structure maintains a pointer to the object and areference count when the object is in memory, and a UID and pointer tothe current object store when the object has not yet been loaded.

Foundation Objects

An MFS Object is something that can be organized, sorted, searched for,and otherwise manipulated by the user in MFS. MFS Objects represententities that encapsulate a given kind of information: email messages,mailboxes, image files, text documents, and so on. Objects haveintrinsic data and type (e.g. an object may be an email message) andalso have attached property values.

Reference Objects.

Reference objects are mapped from the external world by the creation ofan identifier, the UUID that uniquely specifies a given external object.Each object type is responsible for the creation of the UID. By way ofexample, a file may create a UUID by using the file system's file ID orinode, combined with the volume's creation date. This allows a fast andreliable mapping between an external entity and one stored within MFS;this is needed, for example, when a file has changed on disk and MFSneeds to find the internal representation to update the object'sproperties.

Containers.

Containers group objects together. There are many different kinds ofcontainers: disk volume, folder, and collection, by way of example. Eachkind of container has different properties: a folder groups objectstogether physically, and a collection groups objects together logically,based on the user's specification.

Each object maintains a set of the containers in which it appears as aproperty of the object, called pContainers; similarly, all containersmaintain a set of objects that appear in the container, called pObjects.Other properties are computed from these, such as pObjectCount, which iscomputed from the pObject property. These properties define some of thebasic link-metadata stored for all objects in the MFS.

Collections.

Collections group objects together logically, rather than physically, asfolders in file systems do. Rather than specifying where an object is(e.g. in the folder named “Leslie's Finances”), collections allow theuser to specify which objects should be grouped together in a variety ofways. Collections are containers, like folders or directories, in thatthey can be opened to display their contents, but they differ in thatthey:

-   -   a. contain objects from a variety of locations;    -   b. contain objects of a variety of types (e.g. not just files or        folders);    -   c. can have objects manually categorized by being added to the        collection, or removed from the collection, without moving the        original objects themselves;    -   d. can display dynamic, changing contents, updated in real time,        based on a working set;    -   e. can automatically collect objects based on a specification,        similar to a database query, by which objects are selected by        Boolean combinations of property terms and operators;    -   f. and can also automatically collect objects based on a key        phrase search of the objects' textual properties, including its        contents.

By way of example, a collection may have files from both the local filesystem and email messages fetched from a server; images from a digitalcamera may be manually classified by the user into named collectionssuch as “Summer Vacation” and “Kids”; different sizes of digital imagescan be automatically classified as they are added to the working setinto “4×6” and “8×10” collections by specifying different width andheight queries for the given collections; and a collection for objectsthat have something to do with Scandinavia might have a set of keyphrases defined that include the names of Scandinavian countries,cities, and geographical areas (See FIG. 15).

Like containers, collections have the link metadata property pObjectsthat is a set of reference objects that belong to the collection.Collections also have additional link-metadata properties calledpInsiders and pOutsiders, and use additional link metadata properties inreference objects called pInclusions and pExclusions.

PInsiders is a property that contains the set of reference objects thatalways belong to the collection, regardless of any other collectionspecification. Similarly, pInclusions is the set of collections to whicha given reference object belongs, again, regardless of any other actionby a collection to select the object. This permits manual inclusion(categorization) of objects by MFS into collections that persistsdespite any automatic collection processes, such as collecting objectsby metadata or key phrase query. Manually categorizing an object byadding it specifically to a given collection results in the followingchanges to the link-metadata:

-   -   The object's pInclusions and pContainers properties are        modified, to insert the given collection to each set;    -   The collection's pInsiders and pObjects properties are similarly        modified, to insert the given object into each set.

Automatic classification of objects into collections is done when thecollection's pQuery property, which defines the Boolean metadataspecification for objects belonging to the collection, is set to anon-empty value by the user. Setting the pKeyPhrases property alsotriggers automatic classification by key phrases. This begins theclassification process:

-   -   a. First, the collection's pObjects property is invalidated.        This adds the collection to the Updater thread, which then        requests the collection to update its metadata.    -   b. The collection determines that its pObjects property is        invalid. The collection asks the catalog to perform the query on        the contents of the catalog, returning a set of reference        objects that match the query.    -   c. If the pKeyPhrases property is not empty, then the catalog        also returns a set of reference objects whose textual properties        (e.g. name, textual contents, etc.) contain one or more of the        key phrases.    -   d. The union of these two sets of objects is compared to the        current set of objects that is the value of the pObjects        property. This comparison returns a set of added objects,        removed objects, and objects that persisted in the collection.    -   e. For each added object, the object's pContainers property is        updated by inserting the collection, and the collection's        pObjects property is updated by inserting the object from the        set;    -   f. For each removed object, the object's pContainers property is        updated by removing the collection, and the collection's        pObjects property is updated by removing the object from the        set;    -   g. By setting the pObjects property for the collection, and the        pContainers properties for the added and removed objects, the        catalog creates notify events for each affected object; these        events are handled by the notifier, causing affected windows to        redraw as required.

In this way, the link metadata is updated so that both object metadataspecifies container membership, and containers (in this case,collections) have metadata specifying the objects that belong to them.

Collections respond to changes in the environment by adding and removingobjects as needed to satisfy their specification. This occurs in realtime as objects change their properties (e.g. their names or textualcontent), as new objects are created or added to the working set, or asobjects are deleted or removed from the working set. For example, if theuser adds a comment to a file object and there exists a collection thatspecifies a key phrase that occurs in that object's comment, then theobject will be immediately added to the collection. This is done by theclassifier thread, described below.

For each object to be reclassified, all collection specifications areevaluated, resulting in a new set of collections for the changed object.For key phrases, the classifier can return all matching collections inone pass: key phrases are compiled into a graph, with terminal nodeslisting all matching collections. Novel use of the Aho-Corasickalgorithm allows text to be scanned efficiently, returning all matchingcollections into which the object will be classified. Then, thefollowing MFS process occurs:

-   -   a. The set of collections is compared to the object's        pContainers property, resulting in three subsets: added,        removed, and persistent objects. The pInclusions set is also        inserted to the added set, and the pExclusions set inserted to        the removed set, to ensure that manual classifications are taken        into account;    -   b. For each added container, the object adds itself to the        collection in the manner described above: updating its        pContainers property by inserting the collection, and updating        the collection's pObjects property by inserting itself;    -   c. For each removed container, the object removes itself from        the collection in the manner described above; updating its        pContainers property by removing the collection, and updating        the collection's pObjects property by removing itself.    -   d. Setting these properties causes the catalog to enqueue events        on the notifier, which then causes windows to be appropriately        updated (e.g. the contents of collection windows).        These processes will be described in more detail below.

The Catalog

An object may have an arbitrary number of property values attached to itin the form of MFS metadata. Property values can be textual, date,numeric, Boolean, type, or image values, among others. The catalogmanages the definition of metadata (e.g. the property names and types),and the linking of objects to their property values.

Implementation.

The catalog database structure stores an object's properties byproviding a property object that contains a B-Tree to store the propertyvalues. The property object is stored in the object store and maintainscertain information such as the property name, whether the property is asortable or searchable property, the order of sorting, the property'sdata type, whether changing the property should notify other objects,the B-Tree itself, and so on. The object store provides a function toretrieve an object by name; thus, if the property pModificationDate isrequired, the object store is called to retrieve the object by providingthe name “Modification Date,” which is the property object itself. Theproperty B-Tree data structure is also stored in the object store, andmaps the object's UID to the property value for that object. In this waya new property can be added at any time, simply by creating a newproperty object and corresponding B-Tree in the object store. Newproperty values for an existing property are also easily added, by firstfinding the correct property object and B-Tree, and then by inserting avalue for an object's unique ID into that B-Tree.

Values are flattened into streams of data to be stored in the B-Tree.The value can have any length; the B-Tree node is variable lengthdepending on the lengths of the values stored within the node.

As object MFS metadata is written through the catalog, the catalogmaintains a value cache, mapping objects and properties to propertyvalues, as well as a change set that maps objects to a set of propertiesthat have been changed. The values in the value cache are eventuallywritten back to the property B-Trees via the synchronizer, by using thechange set to determine which values need to be written.

The catalog is also responsible for notifying other parts of the MFSsystem of changes in objects via the consistency maintenance processes.When an object's property is written, the value is compared with thevalue as stored in the catalog. If the value is different, an event iscreated and posted to a notification queue described later in thisdocument.

Consistency Maintenance

MFS provides a sophisticated architecture for maintaining objectproperty values and information displays correct by supporting athreaded dataflow mechanism that processes events. In particular, thecatalog provides change notification, such that when objects changetheir property values by setting them in the catalog, a process isstarted to tell all potential users of that object of the change. Forexample, when an object is added to or removed from a collection, allobjects that are affected by that change are notified, in particular thecollection's window.

Objects may depend on the property values of other objects. In theprocess of updating one object, others may be notified of the change;and when a property value changes, dependents are notified and specificdependent properties are then made invalid, to be updated by the updaterthread.

For example, the physical size of a folder depends on the physical sizeof all the objects contained in that folder. Those objects may be filesor other folders. The folder is thus a dependent of all the items in thefolder, and thus is notified if any of them change so that it mayrecompute as required.

In this way, any changes to objects can be tracked and values propagatedto dependent objects. For example, in a personal finance application,the values of checks written must be taken into account when balancingthe checkbook; reconciling the checkbook involves propagating valuesfrom reconciled checks to the current balance.

Implementation Details.

The consistency maintenance process is a composite process by whichobjects are created; their properties computed and set; theircollections determined through classification; their dependents notifiedof the changes; and finally, deleted when no longer used.

There are four separate processes that communicate between one anotherand provide distinct services: the updater, the synchronizer, thenotifier, and the classifier. Each process communicates with the othersby means of an event queue: a queue of events describing tasks to handlein order. Events on the event queue specify the information needed byeach process to perform the required function.

Objects maintain a set of properties in an update set that need to berefetched from the original source (via the domain) or recomputed. Whenthis set is changed due to the object invalidating an individualproperty through the Invalidate function, the object asks the catalog toadd the object to the updater's queue.

Values are stored temporarily in a value cache, keyed by property andUID. Periodically the cache is synchronized with the value trees storedin the object store. At this time a notification event is queued on thenotifier thread.

The notifier thread's job is to tell interested listeners which objectshave been changed, and which properties of those objects. Listenersinclude dependent objects (e.g. containers may want to know that theyhave to invalidate their physical sizes if any of their containedobjects had changed size) and user interface elements (windowsdisplaying object information).

The Updater.

The updater is the process by which invalid object properties arecomputed and new values set for future retrieval. The updater walksthrough the update queue and tells each object to update its properties.This is a two-part process, involving two functions: Fetch and Compute,as follows:

-   -   a. Fetch, causes the object to find the needed property values        from their original sources. These are considered concrete        properties in that there is a direct one-to-one correspondence        between the property value for the object and a value stored        elsewhere in the operating system. For example, if a file        object's name is invalid, Fetch will ask the file's domain to        get the filename from the file system directly; and    -   b. Compute, updates properties that are derived from the        concrete properties. For example, a derived property called        pFullName might be the concatenation of pFirstName and pLastName        in a contact record; or, the physical size of a folder might be        the sum of the sizes of the objects within the folder.        During the Fetch and Compute methods, the object will call Set        Value(property, value) on the properties for which it has        determined values. SetValue tells the catalog that the property        for this object has the given value, and the catalog will store        it away.

In the process of storing the value for the object, the catalogdetermines whether the object actually changed the value; if the valuebeing set was the same as the previous value, then nothing occurs. Ifthe value did in fact change, the property is added to an update setmaintained for that object. More specifically, the updater performs thefollowing procedure, illustrated in FIG. 33:

-   -   a. First, the updater retrieves an update event from the updater        event queue (3301). The update event record consists of an        object specifier and a set of properties that require updating        for that object: the invalid set.    -   b. Next, the updater forwards the invalid set to the object        (3302), and requests that the object Fetch the given properties        (3303). It is the object's responsibility to know how to do        this, since for each type of object this procedure may be        different. Then the updater requests the object Compute derived        properties (3304) that may be based on the properties fetched        (e.g. the physical size of a folder is derived from the sum of        the sizes of each object in the folder).    -   c. During the Fetch and Compute procedures, the object being        updated will set the property values that were requested (3305).        In setting the value for the given object and property, the        catalog stores the object and its new property and value in the        synchronizer's data structure (typically a hash table) (3306),        and then updates a change set (3307): a set of objects and        associated properties that have been changed. This change set        will be referenced by the synchronizer later in the process.

The Synchronizer.

The synchronizer is the process by which objects' updated propertyvalues are written back to the object store. On a periodic interval, thesynchronizer will perform the following procedure, illustrated in FIG.34:

For each object in the catalog's change set (3401), the synchronizerwill walk through the value cache (3402), where it will fetch thecurrent (old) value (3403) and new (cached) value (3404) compare theobject's property value with the current value in the property B-Tree(3405). If the value is different, the new value will replace the old(3406) and the property will remain in the value cache. If the value isthe same, the property will be removed from the change set (3407).

When the object's values have been synchronized with the values storedin the object store, a notifier object changed event is created andadded to the notifier's event queue (3408, 3409). This event includesthe object specifier and the set of properties for which new values werewritten. Note that properties whose values were the same were removedfrom the set, so only properties with new values remained in the set andare in the notification.

The Notifier.

The notifier is the process by which other processes, and objects, arenotified of additions, changes, and removal of objects in the system.Concurrently, the notifier performs the following procedure, illustratedin FIG. 35:

-   -   a. The next notifier event is removed from the notifier event        queue (3501). There are three different types of notifier        events: an object added event, which is queued by another thread        when an object is first created in the system; an object changed        event, which is enqueued by the synchronizer when an object's        property values are changed; and an object removed event, which        is enqueued when an object is removed from the system.    -   b. The notifier then broadcasts the event to all listeners by        going through the subscriber set (3502), copying the event        (3503), and enqueuing the event on the subscriber's queue        (3504). One of the typical subscribers is the classifier (3505),        which receives events and determines whether the object needs to        be reclassified.    -   c. If the event is an object changed event (3506), then the        object itself is subsequently notified of the change (3507).        This is done by computing dependent properties (3508),        invalidating them (3509), and queuing an update event (3510) to        the updater (3511) so that they are refetched and recomputed.        The effect of this is that the object can then notify its own        dependents, such as figures depicting the object on the screen,        or other objects whose properties are dependent on properties of        the original object.        Dependent properties allow the object to invalidate certain        properties that are computed from other properties that had        changed; for example, a container may invalidate its physical        size property if its object set property had changed.        Invalidating one or more of an object's properties in this way        will result in the object in turn being placed on the updater's        event queue as described, for further processing to compute the        desired properties.

Other parts of the MFS system can subscribe to the notifier thread atany time. For example, when an object is displaying properties in awindow, the window management system in MFS temporary subscribes to thenotifier thread so that it may update the window contents when theobject changes, such as the object's containers.

The Classifier.

The classifier is the process by which objects are added to and removedfrom collections based on their property values. Concurrently, theclassifier performs the following procedure, described in FIG. 36:

The next classifier event is removed from the classifier's event queue(3601). Since the classifier is subscribed to the notifier, it receivesnotifier events when objects are added to the system; when objectschange their property values; and when objects are removed. In each ofthese cases the classifier is responsible for determining the set ofcontainers (folders, collections, or other specific containers) to whichthe object belongs.

-   -   a. If the event is an object added event (3602), then the        classifier determines the set of containers to which the object        belongs and creates an added set and an empty removed set        (3603).    -   b. If the event is an object changed event (3604), then the        classifier performs the following procedure (3605). First, the        existing container set is retrieved. Next, the object is        classified, resulting in a set of containers to which the object        should now belong. Next, these two sets are compared, resulting        in the added set, which includes containers to which the object        should be added; and the removed set, containers from which the        object should be removed.    -   c. If the event is an object removed event (3606), then the        classifier creates an empty added set, and sets the removed set        to the object's container set (3607).    -   d. Finally, the object is added to the containers in the added        set (3608), and removed from containers in the removed set        (3609).        In this way, each object referenced in the classifier event        queue ends up in the correct set of containers that select for        its current property values.

Classification of a Single Object

The classifier determines container membership for an object through theprocess described in FIG. 37:

Initially, the result set, which contains the set of containers to whichthe object should belong, is set to empty (3701). Then the classifierasks the object's source (e.g. the File or EMail domain) to perform aninitial classification of the object (3702), resulting in a new resultset. The Files domain, by way of example, would add a file object to itsenclosing folder.

Objects can be classified into collections by specifying in eachcollection a list of key phrases whose occurrence in an object meansthat the object should be referenced in the collection. A collection mayhave many key phrases, and the same key phrases may be specified in manydifferent collections. The WS-configured computer system's key phraseclassifier performs a single-pass, multiplex sorting of a given objectinto an unlimited number of collections based on the pKeyPhrasesproperties defined in those collections and the textual content of theobject.

The classifier runs through each text property in the object (3703) andfor each property goes through each key phrase in the classifier (3704)determining whether the key phrase exists in the property's value text(3705). If so, it adds the entire set of collections associated with thekey phrase, since a single key phrase may be listed by multiplecollections (3706).

The key phrase classifier is based on a novel use and implementation ofthe Aho-Corasick string search algorithm. The classifier begins byscanning each collection when WS is launched, and adds each key phraseto the Aho-Corasick finite state machine. At the terminal nodes for eachkey phrase is a list of collections that specify that phrase; as thecollections are scanned and each key phrase is added, the list ofcollections at each key phrase is kept up to date with all collectionsthat specify it.

All objects maintain a list of collections in which they occur.Classification is accomplished by scanning the text body of an objectusing the Aho-Corasick algorithm. When a key phrase is found within thetext, the list of collections for that phrase is fetched from thefinite-state machine and united to a final (list or set) of collectionsin which this object should appear. When the entire text body has beenscanned, the final set is compared with the initial set. For collectionsthat appear in both sets, nothing is done. For collections that appearin the initial set but not the final set, the object is removed fromthose collections. For collections that appear in the final set but notin the initial set, the object is added to those collections. Finally,the object's collection set becomes the final set, reflecting thatobject's membership in those sets.

Next, the classifier goes through each collection (3707) and determinesif the object satisfies the query specified by the collection (3708). Ifso, the collection is inserted into the result set (3709).

Finally, the result set is returned (3710) and the object is placed intothe collections listed in same.

View by Reference

A container C (folder, collection, or any other container) is viewed byreference using the following process.

-   -   a. An empty result set R is created.    -   b. For each object in the container C, the set of collections to        which that object belongs is added to the result set.    -   c. A new container V representing the reference view, is        created.    -   d. For each collection A in the result set R, a new proxy        collection P is created, where-by the contents of the proxy        collection P is simply the objects in C that are also in the        collection A; this is done through a set intersection of the        collection A and the con-tainer C. Generally, this proxy        collection is simply defined by an MFS metadata query on P which        states that the contents of the proxy collection are the        intersection of the contents of collection A and container C.    -   e. The final container V that is the reference view now contains        a set of proxy collections, each of which holds a subset of the        original objects in C.

The reference view may then be further refined by choosing a proxycollection P's contents (a subset of C's) to view by reference. This isdone as follows:

-   -   a. The reference view V adds P to its prefix set.    -   b. V replaces its proxy collections with new proxy collections,        using the same process as above, but with one difference: each        proxy collection's MFS metadata query now states that the        contents of the proxy collection are the intersection of the        contents of collection A, container C, and all the collections        in V's prefix set.

In this way, a view of the “Today” collection, which shows the objectsmodified today, can more easily be viewed by reference, which shows that(for example) the Received email collection was changed today, as wellas the Documentation project. Clicking on the Received proxy collectionin the view reveals email objects received today; further refining byReceived will show the collections in which email was received today:typically a list of the contacts from whom email was received.

Display and Layout

MFS provides an architecture for display and layout of objects in avariety of ways. Individual objects are viewed in content viewersdefined by each domain, which is responsible for the individual objecttypes. Viewing containers of objects (e.g. collections or folders inicon or list views) is based on three classes of objects: forms,figures, and scenes. A unique type of list view is implemented by MFS'ssticky paths mechanism.

Content Viewers.

For each specific type of object, a content viewer is available forviewing the actual object data. By way of example, contact objects aredisplayed in a window showing first and last names, addresses, and soon. Email messages have their own specific viewer, with the standard to,from, and body panes within the window. Text files or notes aredisplayed in a standard text-editing window.

In the case of content viewers that provide text fields, key phrases canbe highlighted automatically when examining the object's contents andprovide a hyperlink to the defining collection automatically. Ifmultiple collections specify a given key phrase, the popup menu willlist all collections that do so, allowing the user to choose whichcollection should be opened.

An object that has been classified into several different containerswill indicate this in the Information window, where all of thecontainers are listed and may be opened.

Forms.

A form is a 2-dimensional layout of property values of a single object.For example, a standard icon view includes two fields: the icon propertysituated and centered above the name property. A list view form willinclude a left to right arrangement of the object's icon, name, andadditional properties as required by the display. Forms are used byfigures to determine the appearance of the object in the window.

Figures.

A figure is a drawable entity representing an object. Figures are linkedto forms, which define how the figure should be drawn. Figures alsoprovide the ability to be highlighted when clicked; to have theirproperties edited directly, such as the name in an icon view; and to bedragged from one place to another within the MFS interface. Figures arearranged within scenes, which determine where each figure should belocated.

Scenes.

A scene is an arrangement of figures in 2 or 2½ dimensions (2½dimensions include a representation of depth). The scene is generallyresponsible for determining the form the figures within the scene shouldtake; thus, MFS defines a small icon scene whereby the form defines asmall rectangle for the icon property and a rectangle to its right forthe name property; a large icon scene with the icon rectangle above thename rectangle; variants on the previous; and a preview scene where theobject's preview property is drawn within a slide frame, along with theobject's name, size and modification date; and various list views, amongothers.

The scene is also responsible for locating each figure within the scenebased on certain conditions. For example, in the small icon scene theobjects are sorted by a given property (chosen by the user) and thenlaid out top-down, left-to-right in the window; scrolling to the rightshows additional figures. The large icon scene lays out the figuresleft-to-right, then top-down in the window; scrolling down showsadditional figures.

The user typically chooses which scene to display objects in, byselecting an item in the View menu. Unique and specialized scenes may bedefined by domains as well, if needed.

Sticky Paths

Sticky paths are a unique way of displaying hierarchies of objectswithin MFS. Often hierarchies of objects are displayed in a sort ofoutline view, whereby objects are listed in some order (typicallyalphabetical), and sub-objects that are contained in other objects maybe displayed or hidden at the user's control. An object that containsother objects in this way may be either expanded (displaying itssub-objects) or collapsed (hiding them). Each object has a depth, anumeric value that describes how far down the hierarchy it exists; inparticular, how many nodes down the hierarchy tree from the root.Objects at the same depth are known as siblings. The depth determineshow far the object is indented to the right in the outline display.

When an object is collapsed, any object that contains others isindicated in some way with a clickable region, typically a symbol suchas a + sign or a triangle, that may be clicked. Clicking on the regionexpands the object by displaying those objects which are containedwithin below the object and indented to the right by a specific amount,due to their depth being one greater than the depth of the parentobject. Other objects that were at the same level as the object beingexpanded are moved down the display by the amount needed by the expandedobject.

Objects within an expanded object may in turn be expanded, resulting inseveral levels of expanded objects and multiple indentations.

The path to an object is defined as the name of the object itself,prefixed by the names of the nested containers in which the objectexists in outermost order. For example, if an object E is contained inan object D, and in turn D is contained in C, and C is contained in B,the path to the object E is generally described as B:C:D:E.

In a highly-hierarchical display with many objects that do not fit on asingle screen, the user must scroll the hierarchy display in order tosee objects lower down on the list. In particular, if some objects havemany sub-objects which are in turn expanded to show their respectivesub-objects, it is quite easy to forget what part of the hierarchy oneis looking at, i.e., where the user is on the path, since the enclosingobjects have scrolled off the top of the display.

Sticky paths are a mechanism by which a scrollable outline of this formis displayed in two dynamic parts: a path area and a scrollable area.Sticky paths provide the user with a constant awareness of his locationin the hierarchy by:

-   -   a. constantly displaying the current path to the topmost item in        the scrollable area above the scrollable area, and dynamically        updating the path as the objects are scrolled up and down;    -   b. dynamically resizing the scrollable area to accommodate the        path display.    -   Implementation Details. The sticky path scrolling mechanism is        implemented, by way of example, in the following pseudocode:    -   a. Get the old path frame from the current display.    -   b. Get a list of container objects that comprise the path to the        topmost figure in the outline. Do this by determining the object        at the top of the scrolling region, and then walking up the        outline item's parent tree until there are no more parents.    -   c. Set the path display by starting at the top of the list and        drawing each parent in turn, indented appropriate to the        parent's depth.    -   d. Get the size of the new path frame.    -   e. Determine the difference between the heights of the old and        new frames.    -   f. If the difference is zero, then the size of the path hasn't        changed, and the bits can be scrolled within the scrolling        region.

If there is a difference in height, then we first adjust the size andlocation of the scrolling region based on the amount of the change.

If the difference is greater than zero (e.g. the path is smaller than ithad been previously), then we don't scroll, but we do have to refreshthe topmost figures of the area that was vacated when the path regionwas made smaller.

If the difference is less than zero (e.g. the path is larger than it hadbeen previously) then the resizing of the scrolling region issufficient, and no scrolling is necessary since the topmost figure inthe scrolling region will have been moved up into the vacated path area.

In this way, the current path to the topmost item is always visible.

Domains

Domains define an “area of expertise” for MFS. Typical domains includepersonal information management (appointments and contacts); filemanagement (folders, files, disks); image file management (also known asdigital asset management); and email, among others. Domains provide away to extend MFS's capabilities and functions by leveraging MFS'sarchitecture in new ways.

A domain is responsible for implementing the following procedures:

-   -   a. Registration of new object classes and properties for same;    -   b. Creation of new objects of specific classes when needed;    -   c. Creating and managing UUID mappings between reference objects        and external data;    -   d. Adding metadata properties to objects;    -   e. Basic classification of objects by class and property values;    -   f. Updating of object metadata in response to changes in the        operating environment; and    -   g. Performing basic operations on behalf of objects that the        domain manages.

The following describes these procedures for domains defining filemanagement, email handling, music organization, personal informationmanagement, image management, and organization by time.

The File Domain.

This domain registers new object classes for disks, folders, and files.The properties that are registered include file and folder names;creation date; modification date; physical size; and permissions, amongothers.

The domain is also responsible for scanning folder and file objects, andresolving changes with the objects on the disk as the disk contentschange. For example, when a folder's modification date differs from itscorresponding object in MFS, the domain compares the folder's contentswith the contents of the folder object, and creates or deletes file andfolder objects in the folder object as required to match exactly thecontents of the disk folder. Similarly, if a file's modification datechanges, its corresponding file object is updated with the currentfilename, modification date, size, and so on in order to mirror exactlythe file's property values.

Certain file types are handled specially by this domain. In particular,application and document files must have the appropriate iconsassociated with them, and behaviors such as opening a document must bedefined to launch the correct application.

This domain provides window layouts for information about files andfolders, and utilizes built-in MFS windows for displaying foldercontents. Window layouts for certain types of files also are supported,including text files and clippings.

All sources provide the ability to scan external data to add informationto the Working Set, and match the external data to update MFS's internalreference objects as the external data changes. By way of example wedescribe the File domain's implementation details of these twoprocesses.

Implementation Details.

The File domain is notified of files to add to the Working Set asfollows. The user drags a folder to MFS's workspace window; this causesa reference object is created for the folder by the specific sourcehandling the folder; in this case, File source, which is responsible forall file system objects. Next, a scanner thread is created with thereference object as a parameter. This thread performs the followingfunctions, in order:

-   -   a. Traverse: A procedure recursively descends the folder        hierarchy, creating data entries that are stored in an array.        Each entry contains a file system specifier that represents the        file; a depth in the folder hierarchy; and a flag that        determines whether the file system specifier is for a folder or        a file. The array is then sorted, deepest objects in the tree        first (so that files within a folder are created before the        folder is).    -   b. Annotate: Once this array has been populated, the entries are        annotated with metadata that can be efficiently fetched “en        masse”, such as file and folder comments.    -   c. Create: The entries are fetched one by one from the array.        For each entry, a reference object is created with the entry's        information (e.g. the file specifier and any metadata that was        previously fetched and added to the catalog). A new array of        reference objects is created.    -   d. Classify: Each object in the array is then classified by        examining its metadata and determining in which collections the        object belongs, based on the collections' specifications. Every        collection that is modified (e.g. that has received a new object        through the classification process) is added to yet a third        array for notification.    -   e. Notify: Finally, each collection that participated in the        classify step is notified that it has been changed. This        typically results in the collection updating dependent property        values (e.g. count of contained objects), which are then updated        in a separate thread.

Then, the folder reference object is then added to the HFS source'sworking set, which is the set of all folders that MFS should manage. TheWorkspace window is then updated, since the working set propertydetermines which folders are shown in the window.

Because the file system data that the File source tracks changes overtime, the File source has the ability to match these changes andpropagate them throughout the catalog and object store. This is done asfollows:

-   -   a. During the match process, MFS compares its stored information        against the source's versions of the same information. If there        is an indication of difference between a reference object in MFS        and the actual external object (by noting a changed modification        date, for example), MFS invalidates the reference object's        metadata.    -   b. Once the metadata has been invalidated for all objects        suspected of being changed externally, MFS puts each object on        the updater queue.    -   c. While items exist on the updater queue, the updater does the        following:    -   d. Takes the next item off the queue    -   e. Tells the object to update itself. This, in turn, causes the        object to go to the source to determine what the true values        should be for each of the invalid property values. Once the        values have been retrieved from the source (by asking the file        system for file metadata such as name, modification date, etc.),        the new values are set in the catalog and the property is        validated.    -   f. The catalog then creates notification events based on the        objects and values that were set, and enqueues them on the        notifier queue    -   g. The notifier goes through each event, telling all of the        object's dependents (any containers to which the object belongs        as a member, as well as any other dependent objects) that it has        changed the given properties.    -   h. Those objects, in turn, determine whether any of their        properties need invalidation. For example, if a file's size has        changed, the containing folder's size property needs to be        updated, since it is dependent on the sizes of all the files        within the folder.

Using these two processes, scan and match, the File domain creates aMirrored Object System within MFS that exactly represents the file andfolder hierarchy that the Domain tracks, regardless of external changes.

The EMail Domain.

This domain registers new object classes for mailboxes, which describeservers and passwords for retrieving mail; signatures, for signingmessages; and email messages themselves. Properties for these objectsinclude server names, addresses, and passwords, for mailboxes; a nameand text string, for signatures; and the full suite of email propertiesfor messages, including From, Date, Subject, and message body.

The domain is responsible for communicating with mail servers for bothsending and receiving email; creating outgoing message objects; and forcreating new received message objects as they are downloaded from theserver. Attachments are handled by communication with the File domainfor creating and linking to file objects as they are downloaded to disk.

Finally, window layouts are provided for outgoing and incoming emailmessages; mailboxes; and signatures. Behaviors such as sending messages,forwarding, replying, and so on are also supported by the domain.

The Music Domain.

This domain, a client of the File domain, registers a new object for amusic file, generally in the MP3 format. Properties registered includethe track's title, artist, album, genre, and comments.

The domain is responsible for extracting the property values from thefile using the ID3 tags that are embedded in the file, and for settingthe properties in the catalog for the object. The domain also createspredefined collections for titles by album, and albums by artist, basedon the music files that are handled by the system.

The domain may also provide a music player for all files in a givencontainer; in this way the user can play all the tracks on a givenalbum, or tracks grouped together in an arbitrary collection.

Finally, a window layout is provided for information about the musictrack, showing album, artist, title, and so on in addition to thegeneric file information such as filename, file size, and so on.

The Personal Information Domain.

This domain registers new objects for contacts, notes, appointments,projects, events, and tasks. Specific properties are registered for eachobject: for contacts, the standard list of contact information such asfirst and last name, email address, phone, and so on; for notes, thenote text; for appointments, the date and time, repeat interval,description, contacts, and so on; for projects, the project name anddescription; for events, the event name, date, and so on; and for tasks,the task description, priority, and the like.

The domain is responsible for scanning and matching with system-leveladdress book databases, creating, deleting, and modifying contacts asrequired. Depending on the domain implementation, it may also match withother PIM databases such as Outlook and Palm in the same way, bycreating mirror objects in MFS for each object in the target database.

The domain creates predefined collections for all notes, all contacts,and so forth, as well as predefined collections for each contact thatcollect all objects that reference the contact's name.

Finally, window layouts are provided for each type of object to allowdisplay and editing of the object's data.

The Image Management Domain.

This domain, a client of the File domain, registers new objects for filetypes that store images. Properties registered include image resolution,width, height, depth, and the like.

The domain is responsible for extracting the attribute from the file andattributing the MFS object appropriately, as well as for reading thefile data and displaying it as an image within an MFS window.

The domain creates predefined collections for all images of varioustypes (e.g. JPEG files, GIF files, Photoshop files, etc.), as well as asingle Images collection for all images.

Finally, a window layout is provided for the display of image files.

The Time Domain.

This domain provides no new object classes, but creates and maintains aset of dynamic collections that are based on relative time. For example,the domain creates and keeps up to date a Today collection that changeseach day; similarly, Last Week, Last Month, Last Year, and collectionscreated on demand by the user are handled by this domain.

The domain provides a root collection called Time; in this collectionthe various other collections are created and stored. A collection forthe current year contains collections for each month of the year todate; in turn, each month has collections for each week of the month.

Finally, the domain provides window layouts for unique views of objectsby time, including a Timeline view where documents are arranged by adate property within a given range, among others. This domain isparticularly adaptable to use in the legal field where extensivedocketing systems are required.

Additional Domains.

It should be understood, as will be evident to one skilled in the artthat a wide variety of other Domains may be added, e.g., Location,Space, Event, Symptom, Cause of Action, etc., as the Domains describedabove are merely exemplary and not limiting of the scope, nature andcharacter of domains that the inventive system can employ. The Domainscan be special in nature, as noted by the Symptom for those in themedical profession, and Cause of Action for those in the legal servicesprofession. Another Domain could be “MO” for modus operandi, for use byinvestigators and police, which can be set to automatically group incollections sets of facts (objects representing text narratives ofcriminal activities, images and the like) based on similar MOs. Thisautomatic building of collections could be a powerful tool in thecriminal justice field. Likewise, engineering professions can buildcollections with similarities in data trends or values, e.g.,temperatures, materials values, velocity, concentrations of chemicalcomponents, etc. for analytic purposes.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The inventive data storage organization, archiving, retrieval andpresentation system architecture and technology can be used in a widevariety of applications; the primary being desktop file organization andserver data management. The inventive system is remarkably robust, yetis a relatively small application program that can function with anytype of Operating System: Microsoft Windows, Windows NT, Windows 2000,and Windows XP; Apple Macintosh OS 9 and OSX; BSD Unix, HP-UX, SunSolaris, Linux, and the like. Currently the inventive technology ispreferably implemented in its current best mode in a form that isexecutable on the Apple Macintosh OS9 and OSX operating systems.

As to Desktop Organization, the invention is useful as an improveddesktop organization application for all types of data, limited only bythe domains that can be conceived-of. Domains may be easily created toextend the MFS capabilities to new areas of expertise.

As to File Organization, similar to the Apple Macintosh Finder orMicrosoft Windows Explorer, the inventive MFS system provides basic disknavigation and display features. In addition, the File domain allowsadditional properties to be specified for files, including: a due date;a file species (e.g. an application, a bookmark, a text-readable file,an image file, a font file, etc.); and a file path. Folders haveadditional properties that are maintained automatically: the size of thecontents of the folder; and the depth of the folder from the rootdirectory of the disk, among others.

As to Image Cataloging, image asset management is easily implemented asan extension of the MFS File domain. A domain that can extract relevantinformation from images found on disk (e.g. size, type of image, colorsused, resolution, and so on) is created as a representative objectwithin MFS that has the given properties. Users can then view and selectthe images that satisfy certain collection criteria. Comments on theobjects can also be used to describe and/or define the content of theimages, and collections can be created to organize all images based ontheir described/defined content.

As to Personal Information Management the inventive MFS system is usefulfor scheduling, organization and tracking of appointments, contacts,events, notes, projects, and tasks as typical kinds of objects that aredefined by the PIM (Personal Information Management) domain. What makesthe inventive system of particular interest to industry is that the PIMDomain functionality provides a new feature: the ability to organizeinformation objects by person and by project.

As to EMail, a basic embodiment of the inventive MFS system providesbasic EMail client services. The objects that the basic EMail domaindefines include: mailboxes, email messages, and signatures. This can beexpanded to include all types of e-business trust services, including:signature legalization; payment transfers; electronic record retentionand verification; electronic filing of documents, including formal/legaldocuments, applications, forms and the like; privacy and confidentialityguards; identity verification and authentication; access guards; timeverification and authentication, including times of sending, acceptance,receipt and performance; and the like.

As to EMail Notification, the inventive MFS system permits the user towatch all postings and create emails describing when a message will beclassified into a given collection (automatic forum). This results fromthe functionality of the classifier; as it is data-driven, it classifiesall collections simultaneously. When a key phrase is found it lists allcollections from all users that specify that phrase. The phrases can bedefined in Boolean search terms for the broadest inclusivecategorization and inclusion.

As to Custom Desktop Client, the inventive MFS system includes, by wayof example, the useful functionality of Portfolio management by whichthe user, as a customer of a financial services site, such asMarketocracy.com, can communicate with the site server to synchronizedata, e.g., to provide automatic portfolio updates, stock quote display,market, sector and stock performance graphing, and the like.

As to Personal Finance, a personal finance domain may be implemented inMFS to provide objects for checks, checkbooks, receipts, invoices,stocks, funds, and so on. The normal accounting principles apply; thevalue propagation feature mechanism is used to ensure that the checkbookproperties (e.g. balance) are computed from the check properties (e.g.amount of check). Stocks and funds can be updated over the network andtheir values displayed in MFS.

It should be understood that various modifications within the scope ofthis invention can be made by one of ordinary skill in the art withoutdeparting from the spirit thereof and without undue experimentation. Itis apparent to those skilled in the art that many features andfunctionalities of the inventive MFS can be enabled and realizedseparately. For example, sticky paths or drag and drop link creation caneach be coded in a separate application or applet, or can be provided asincremental upgrades to a program, or as plug-ins or add-ons to existingother productivity, organizational or creativity application programs orapplets. That is, MFS can include less than all the dozen or morefeatures described above, and, conversely, MFS is extensible to includeadditional features and is adaptable to co-operatingly interact andenhance other applications. This invention is therefore to be defined bythe scope of the appended claims as broadly as the prior art willpermit, and in view of the specification if need be, including a fullrange of current and future equivalents thereof

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer data processing system comprising: acomputer readable memory configured to store informational objectshaving property identifiers associated therewith; a display configuredto display the property identifiers of the informational objectsorganized within a plurality of groups, each of said groups described bya characteristic of the property identifiers of the informationalobjects; a processor coupled to said computer readable memory and tosaid display, said processor configured to execute computer executableinstructions to: present on said display at least some of the propertyidentifiers of at least one of said informational objects in a firstscrollable area of said display; present on said display, in a second,independently scrollable area of said display, at least one of saidorganizational identifiers that describes those of the propertyidentifiers of the informational objects presented in the first area ofsaid display; and upon scrolling of said property identifiers presentedin said first area of the display, dynamically update the at least oneorganizational identifier of the property identifiers of saidinformational objects presented in said second area of said display,said dynamic updating being processed so that: when the scrolling of theproperty identifiers of the informational objects presented in the firstarea of the display enters a beginning of a new group of said propertyidentifiers of said informational objects, said new group described by anew organizational identifier, said new organizational identifier isrendered in said second area of said display so that said neworganizational identifier is visibly displayed in said second area ofsaid display adjacent any visible organizational identifier of apreviously-entered and still open group of said property identifiers ofsaid informational objects that includes said new group of said propertyidentifiers of said informational objects described by the neworganizational identifier, and if there is no visible organizationalidentifier of a previously-entered and still open group of said propertyidentifiers of said informational objects, said new organizationalidentifier is visibly displayed by itself in said second area of saiddisplay; and when the scrolling continues past an end of all entries ofsaid new group of said property identifiers of said informationalobjects described by the new organizational identifier to exit said newgroup such that the entries of said new group of said propertyidentifiers of said informational objects are no longer visible in saidsecond area of said display, and said new organizational identifier ofsaid new group of said property identifiers is removed from said secondarea of said display, while any organizational identifiers ofpreviously-entered groups of said property identifiers of saidinformational objects remain in said second area of said display untilthey in turn are exited; thereby to provide continuous automaticdynamically-updated display, in said second area of said display, of atleast one organizational identifier of said groups of propertyidentifiers of said informational objects.
 2. A computer data processingsystem as in claim 1 wherein said processor is further configured toexecute computer executable instructions so as to display said secondarea adjacent an edge of said first area.
 3. A computer data processingsystem as in claim 2 wherein said second area is displayed within saidfirst area.
 4. A computer data processing system as in claim 1 whereinsaid processor is further configured to execute computer executableinstructions so as to cause at least one of: a) rendering of said secondarea to be transparent, translucent, or opaque; and b) expansion orcollapse of individual groups of displayed property identifiers of saidinformational objects through user action.
 5. A computer data processingsystem as in claim 1 wherein said processor is further configured toexecute computer executable instructions so as to cause said second areato appear and disappear in response to user action in said first area.6. A method, comprising: displaying property identifiers ofinformational objects in a first scrollable area of a display of aprocessor-based device, the property identifiers organized withingroups, each respective one of said groups described by a characteristicof those of the property identifiers that comprise the respective groupof property identifiers; displaying, in said first area of the display,a next organizational identifier associated with a next one of thegroups of said property identifiers of informational objects;displaying, in a second, independently scrollable area of the display, acurrent organizational identifier that identifies a current group ofproperty identifiers of informational objects displayed in the firstarea of the display that is presently displayed adjacent to said secondarea of the display; and in response to a user scrolling action,changing the displayed ones of said property identifiers ofinformational objects and next organizational identifier in said firstarea of the display, and updating dynamically the displaying of thecurrent organizational identifier in the second area of said displaysuch that: i) the current organizational identifier remains in saidsecond area so long as members of the current group of propertyidentifiers of informational objects remain displayed in the first areaof the display as scrolling continues; and, ii) when the scrollingcontinues so that a member of the next group of property identifiers ofinformational objects displayed in said first area of said display, andthe next organizational identifier of the next one of the groups ofproperty identifiers of informational objects is adjacent to said secondarea of said display, said second area of the display is updated toinclude the next organizational identifier that is adjacent to saidsecond area of said display; thereby to provide a continuous automaticdynamically-updated display, in said second area of said display, of allorganizational identifiers of a presently displayed group of propertyidentifiers of said informational objects in said first area of saiddisplay.
 7. The method of claim 6, further comprising dynamicallyresizing said second area of the display to accommodate presentlydisplayed ones of the organizational identifiers therein.
 8. The methodof claim 6, further comprising displaying in said second area of saiddisplay each organizational identifier of groups of the propertyidentifiers into which said user scrolling action proceeds.
 9. Themethod of claim 8, wherein each organizational identifier of theproperty identifiers presently displayed in the first area of thedisplay is displayed in the second area of the display indented inaccordance with a depth of a respective group of property identifiers ina hierarchy order of said property identifiers.
 10. The method of claim9, wherein the hierarchy order of the property identifiers is displayedsuch that only an adjacent parent of each level of the hierarchy orderis displayed as said user scrolls.
 11. The method of claim 6, whereinsaid second area is displayed within said first area.
 12. The method ofclaim 6, wherein said second area is displayed as a transparent ortranslucent overlay in a portion of said first area.
 13. The method ofclaim 9, wherein said hierarchy order is displayed as a multi-levelnested structure, wherein each level of said hierarchy order includes anidentifier indicating at least of a specific level of said hierarchyorder.